Search intent is the reason behind a query: to learn, to reach a specific site, to compare or to buy. Google says it first works out the intent behind your query before it ranks results. In Google Ads, every click costs money whatever that intent is, so commercial and transactional searches tied to your offer are the ones that deserve a bid first.
Key takeaway: Only pay for clicks whose intent matches what you sell: bid on buying searches, test mixed cases on a small budget, and exclude the rest before it costs you money.
Put your keywords in a spreadsheet: Keyword Planner ideas, the keywords already in your campaigns, and search terms that have spent money. Remove duplicates, then add an 'intent' column and a 'decision' column.
Spot the modifiers: price, quote or buy for buying, reviews or compare for comparing, how or what is for information, jobs or course for hiring and training. Label the obvious ones right away and mark everything else 'to check'.
For the keywords to check, the most expensive and the shortest, open the Google results page in a private window, from the country you target. Note the ads, Shopping ads, the type of pages that rank, the People also ask box and the local map.
For each keyword, ask one question: can this person buy what you sell from this search? Yes, with no doubt: Bid. Maybe, or mixed intent: Test. No: Skip.
Add the keywords to skip as negative keywords, with their variants. Run the tests with a capped budget and a set length. When that period ends, review the search terms report and move each tested keyword to Bid or Skip.
Search intent is the reason someone types a query: what they want to get out of Google. Two similar queries can hide opposite needs. 'Heat pump cost' often comes from someone getting ready to buy, while 'how does a heat pump work' comes from someone doing research. Google says so on its page about ranking results: to return relevant results, it first needs to establish what you are looking for, meaning the intent behind your query.
The classic model splits queries into three broad groups: informational, navigational and transactional. The Wikipedia page on web search queries presents it with a reference to an article by researcher Andrei Broder. It notes that the model has been validated against real search engine queries, even though it was not derived from theory. Many marketing guides add a fourth group, commercial intent, to single out the stage where people compare before they buy.
Google uses its own grid in the guidelines it gives to the people who rate the quality of its results. That document, the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, sorts queries into four intents. Know means looking for information. Do means getting something done, and Google lists buying or downloading among those goals. Website means reaching a specific site. Visit-in-person means going somewhere, such as a nearby store. The guidelines warn that many queries do not fit neatly into just one of these groups.
For the rest of this guide, take the example of an HVAC contractor in Denver who installs heat pumps. Here is how its possible keywords split across the four groups used in many guides. These examples illustrate what you usually see on Google.
In Google Ads, you pay for every click, whether the person came to buy or to read. A high school student working on a report about heat pumps and a homeowner who wants to replace an oil furnace can type similar queries and click the same ad. Both clicks are billed. Only the second one can turn into a job. Every visit like that takes a little budget away from possible customers.
A keyword whose intent does not match your offer costs you twice: in wasted clicks, then in quality. Google defines ad relevance, one of the three components of Quality Score, as how closely your ad matches the intent behind a user's search. An ad reading 'Heat Pump Installation, Quote in 48 Hours' that shows on 'how does a heat pump work' usually gets few clicks, and the clicks it does get convert poorly. Our guide to Google Ads Quality Score explains how this works.
Your match type partly decides which intents you end up buying. According to Google Ads Help on keyword matching options, an exact match keyword can show your ad on searches that have the same meaning or the same intent as the keyword. On broad match, your ad can show on searches that are related to the keyword. A broad match keyword like 'heat pump' can end up on searches about definitions, noise or training courses.
To put a number on what these clicks already cost you, start from your own data. The search terms report lists the real queries that triggered your ads. Our wasted spend calculator turns the share of those searches with no buying intent into a monthly and a yearly amount. No market average can replace that calculation, because the share varies from one account to the next.
The results page is the best clue to intent, because it shows how Google understood the query. Google explains that words like 'cooking' or 'pictures' in a query lead it to show recipes or images, and that a search for 'pizza' brings up nearby businesses that deliver. So the makeup of the page reflects what Google thinks best matches the intent behind those words.
Start with the ads: how many there are and what format they take give you a first commercial signal. When several advertisers pay to show at the top of the page, the search often pays off for them, though nothing proves it: some may be bidding at a loss. Shopping ads go further. According to Google Ads Help on Shopping ads, they display a product photo, title, price and store name, and they rely on the merchant's product data rather than keywords. When they show up, Google is tying the search to a product people buy.
Next, look at the kind of pages that rank, the People also ask box and the local map. Product or quote pages point to buying, comparison pages to people still choosing, articles to people who came to learn. A run of questions like 'Are heat pumps noisy?' shows people doing research. A map with nearby businesses is good news for a contractor who works in that area. The list below sums up these signals.
This is the reading Should I Bid does for you, one keyword at a time. Its intent analysis reads the live Google results page, ads included, then an AI reads the pages that rank and checks them against what your company sells. You get a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100: Bid at 70 or above, Test from 50 to 69, Skip below 50. How well the intent fits your offer makes up 40% of that score. It is a snapshot of the page at the time of the analysis: it gives neither search volume nor a cost-per-click estimate.
Some words placed next to your product often reveal intent: they are called modifiers. They give you a quick first sort of a long list, before you open a single results page. Here are the most useful groups.
The word 'free' is the most common trap, because its meaning depends on your business. For our contractor, 'free estimate heat pump installation' is usually a buying search: the person wants an estimate, and 'free' only says they do not expect to pay for it. For a company selling estimating software, 'free estimating software for contractors' is a buying search only if it offers a free plan or a trial. Without one, those clicks mostly come from people who do not plan to pay.
Job and training words get expensive when you are not hiring. 'HVAC certification course' or 'HVAC technician salary' attract job seekers and students. None of them will order an installation. Exclude them, unless you run a separate hiring campaign with its own ads and its own page.
Brand names call for a separate decision. A search for your own brand usually comes from someone who already knows you; no longer showing an ad on it can leave room for other advertisers. A search for a competitor's brand is usually navigational: the person wants to reach another site, and the topic raises trademark questions to check with a lawyer. Our guide to bidding on competitor keywords covers that case in detail.
A modifier is only a clue: many buying searches contain none. 'Heat pump denver' or 'replace oil furnace' carry neither 'price' nor 'quote', yet they often come from future customers. On the other hand, 'reviews' can sit next to a product you do not sell. As soon as a keyword is expensive or stays unclear, open its results page.
Many keywords carry several intents at once, and Google acknowledges it. Its rater guidelines separate the dominant interpretation of a query, what most people mean, from common interpretations and minor ones that fewer people have in mind. They add that the line between looking for information and getting something done is sometimes blurry, and that raters should not worry about strictly telling the two apart.
Short keywords tend to be the most mixed. On 'heat pump', the results page can blend ads, product pages from big retailers, explainer articles, pages about rebates and questions about noise or energy use. Some of those people will buy soon, others are researching for later. Bidding broadly on that keyword means paying for that whole audience.
When intent is split, test instead of deciding. A sensible test follows a few rules: a capped budget, exact match or phrase match, an ad that says clearly what you sell, and a length set in advance. Then go back to the search terms report: the queries that convert move to Bid, the rest join your negative keywords.
Some informational searches come from people planning a purchase. 'Heat pump rebate' looks like a paperwork question. Yet the person typing it is often planning a project and looking for a way to pay for it. For our contractor, it is a good test candidate, paired with a page that answers the rebate question and offers a quote. For a store that sells portable air conditioners, the same search brings in nothing.
When they exist, favor longer variants. 'Air source heat pump installation denver' usually draws fewer searches than 'heat pump', with much less doubt about what the person wants.
The five-step method on this page fits in a spreadsheet and turns a raw list into decisions. It starts with the fastest part, sorting by words, and saves the results page for expensive or unclear keywords. At the end, every keyword lands in one column: Bid, Test or Skip. It assumes a well-built starting list: our guide on how to choose Google Ads keywords covers that step.
The decision follows a fairly stable grid. Transactional intent that matches your offer leads to Bid. Commercial intent where you are one of the serious options leads to Bid or Test, depending on the competition. Mixed intent leads to Test. Informational, job or free intent without a free plan leads to Skip, unless your conversions prove otherwise. For the broader question of whether a keyword can be profitable, see our method: should you bid on a keyword?
Keywords marked Skip become negative keywords, and that is where sorting starts to pay off. According to Google Ads Help on negative keywords, negative keywords do not match close variants: add singular and plural forms and synonyms yourself, for example 'job', 'jobs' and 'hiring'. Google also warns that with too many negative keywords, your ads might reach fewer customers.
To avoid starting from scratch, lean on lists that are already built. Our negative keyword lists bring together one common list and several industry lists, including one for local services and trades: uncheck what describes your offer, then copy the rest. Our comparison of negative keyword tools then helps you choose how to manage them over time.
For a first sort with no account, a free checker is enough. Our keyword intent checker takes up to 10 keywords. A decision model reads the meaning of each query and estimates its main intent and the likelihood that it brings in a customer. It reads neither the Google results page nor your offer: it is a starting filter, to be completed for the unclear cases.
SEO tools label intent, which helps you organize a list. Semrush shows a search intent label for each keyword. Moz Pro offers a main search intent generated by Moz AI. Keyword Insights sorts thousands of keywords by intent based on the live results page, and offers keyword clustering. These labels work well for a content plan. None of these three tools returns a bid verdict that takes into account what you sell.
An intent label is not a bid decision. A 'commercial' label on 'best air source heat pump' is worth a bid for a contractor who installs those models, and nothing for a store selling electric space heaters. The label describes the searcher. The decision also depends on your offer, your margin and the advertisers already on the page.
For search volumes and cost per click, keep Google Keyword Planner. Google's free tool gives keyword ideas, search volumes and cost-per-click ranges. It does not read the actual results page and does not return an intent verdict. Should I Bid does the opposite: it provides neither search volume nor cost-per-click estimates, and it does no rank tracking or backlinks. The two work together.
To decide keyword by keyword before you pay, the full analysis goes further than a label. Each Should I Bid analysis also recommends negative keywords, ready to export as a CSV file for Google Ads. It works with credits, one credit per keyword analyzed, with 5 free analyses to try it and no credit card: see pricing. Our comparison of keyword intent analysis tools puts these options side by side, free tools included.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan with no credit card. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
| Moz Pro | from $49/mo | Entry-level plan at $49 per month (single site). “Standard” plan: $99 per month billed monthly, $79 per month billed annually; Medium $179, Large $299 per month. Free trial. A promotion was shown on the day of the check: prices to be rechecked. | Source |
| Keyword Insights | from $58/mo ($46/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: $58 per month billed monthly, $46 per month billed annually ($552 per year). “Professional”: $99 per month ($79 annually). Pay-as-you-go option, 7-day trial for $1. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. Google requires entering billing information and completing account setup to access keyword ideas. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
Search intent is the reason someone types a query into Google: to learn something, reach a specific site, compare options, or take action, such as buying or requesting a quote. Google says it first works out that intent before choosing which results to show. In Google Ads, intent decides whether the click you pay for has any chance of turning into a customer.
Informational (learning or understanding), navigational (reaching a specific site or brand), commercial (comparing before choosing) and transactional (buying, booking or requesting a quote). The original classification, credited to researcher Andrei Broder, has only three: informational, navigational and transactional. Many marketing guides add commercial intent to single out the comparison stage. Many queries mix several intents at once.
Start with the query itself: words like price, quote, reviews, how or jobs give a first clue. Then open the Google results page. Several ads, Shopping ads and product pages usually point to buying; comparison pages and reviews point to comparing; articles, videos and a long People also ask box point to research.
Commercial intent keywords come from people who know what they want to buy but are still comparing options, with searches like 'best air source heat pump', 'heat pump reviews' or 'heat pump vs furnace'. They sit just before transactional keywords such as 'heat pump installation quote denver'. In Google Ads, they are often worth a bid or a test, depending on whether your offer is one of the options people compare.
Buyer intent keywords signal that someone is ready to act: price, quote, buy, order, near me, or a service plus a city. They deserve your budget first. Do not exclude every other search on reflex, though. Some informational queries come from people planning a purchase, such as a question about rebates before a home project. Check your conversions and the results page, then exclude, test or keep.
No, the two work together. Keyword Planner, free with a Google Ads account, gives keyword ideas, search volumes and cost-per-click ranges. Should I Bid provides neither search volume nor cost-per-click estimates: it reads the Google results page for each keyword, compares it with your offer and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100.